Extraction of lanthanides and actinides from H. A. Waste by calix[4]arenes bearing CMPO units

The decategorisation of radioactive liquid waste by removal of 90Sr, 137Cs and actinides (allowing the waste to be sent to a surface disposal after conditioning) or the separation of these long lived nuclides from solutions arising from the PUREX process (in order to destroy them by transmutation or to isolate them in high integrity matrixes) need very specific extractants. Carbamoylmethyl phosphine oxides are excellent extractants for actinides, especially the (N, N-di-isobutylcarbamoylmethyl) octyl phenyl phosphine oxide used in the TRUEX process. The species extracted contains three CMPO molecules per actinide cation. Thus, it seemed interesting to attach, in a suitable way and on an appropriate platform, three (or more) functional groups of the CMPO type, to better complex the trivalent cations